Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction

Christopher Harvie and the late H. C. G. Matthew

Description

The nineteenth century was a time of massive growth for Britain. In 1800 it was overwhelmingly rural, agrarian, multilingual, and almost half-Celtic. A century later it was largely urban and English. The effects of the Industrial Revolution caused cities to swell enormously. London, for example, grew from about 1 million people to over 6 million. Abroad, the British Empire was reaching its apex, while at home the world came to marvel at the Great Exhibition of 1851 with its crowning achievement--the Crystal Palace. Historians Christopher Harvie and Colin Matthew present a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the social, economic, and political events that marked the era on which many believed the sun would never set.

Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction

Christopher Harvie and the late H. C. G. Matthew

Table of Contents

1. Reflections on the revolutions2. Industrial development3. Reform and religion4. The wars abroad5. Roads to freedom6. Coping with reform7. Unless the Lord build the city8. The ringing grooves of change9. Politics and diplomacy: Palmerstons years10. Incorporation11. Free trade: an industrial economy rampant12. A shifting population: town and country13. The masses and the classes: the urban worker14. Clerks and commerce: the lower middle class15. The propertied classes16. Pomp and circumstance17. A great change in manners18. Villa Tories: the Conservative resurgence19. Ireland, Scotland, Wales: Home Rule frustrated20. Reluctant imperialists?21. The
fin-de-siècle reaction: new views of the State22. Old Liberalism, New Liberalism, Labourism, and tariff reform23. Edwardian years: a crisis of the State contained24. Your English summers doneFurther readingChronologyPrime ministers 1789-1914Index